Bet you never noticed the Hachiko manhole, just by the Hachiko statue!

Lastly, the “Tricky manhole”, along Dogenzaka. From this angle, it looks like a person running on the upper half, but look at it sideways, and you’ll notice a dog pattern. Look even closer and you’ll find one of the dogs has a collar – surely a Hachiko reference! (Hence: “Dog・en・saka”)

In 1924, Hidesaburo Ueno, a professor in the agriculture department at the University of Tokyo, took Akita dog Hachiko, as a pet. Hachiko kept waiting for his owner in front of Shibuya Station after Ueno’s death, and now, his bronze statue is famous as a meeting place in Shibuya.

However, recently officials have begun considering moving the Hachiko statue temporarily to his hometown of Odate, Akita Prefecture in 2020, in light of construction work around the station. Such would make for his first return in 96 years!